Has this happened to you? You’re out and about with friends, and a text message (or iMessage) hits your iPhone. Being a serious iPhone user and Tweeter, of course, you’ve left your iPhone out on the tabletop. Unfortunately, the text message that shows up on your screen isn’t very flattering to the friend sitting immediately to your left. She sees it, gets upset, and storms off. Nobody wins.

With a quick trip to Settings, however, you can prevent this tale of tears and keep your iMessages for your eyes only. Here’s how.

Hop onto your iPhone (or iPad or iPod touch) and launch the Settings app with a tap. Tap on Notifications, and then scroll down to the Show Preview toggle. Tap this OFF.

Now, when a message shows up, it will just show who it’s from, not what they said. Which, you know, could be handy. If you don’t even want to see that much, toggle the View in Lock Screen to OFF as well, and they won’t pop up in the lock screen. However, if you’re using your device, and have the banners and notification sounds ON, you’ll still get them. Just not in the Lock Screen.

This should help you avoid a lot of potentially embarrassing situations created by the ubiquity of communications we’re all starting to take for granted. Or at least keep your private messages to yourself.

About the author

Rob LeFebvre is an Anchorage, Alaska-based writer and editor who has contributed to various tech, gaming and iOS sites, including 148Apps, Creative Screenwriting, Shelf-Awareness, VentureBeat, and Paste Magazine. Feel free to find Rob on Twitter @roblef, and send him a cookie once in a while; he'll really appreciate it.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address) | Read more posts by Rob LeFebvre.